the vatican,popebenedictxviwill offer a final public blessing before he retires next thursday. as cardinals gather for the election of a new pope, the vatican today was sharply critical of a wave of reports in the italian media. nbc's anne thompson is at the vatican. good evening to you. >> reporter: good evening, lester. it was an unusually strong rebuke from the vatican for going after the media for running false news reports, they claim, to influence the election of the next pope. now, this pushback came after several unsourced stories in an italian newspaper this week claim pope benedict decided to resign after receiving a secret report in december outlining corruption and misconduct inside the vatican. church officials here denied that story and today the vatican secretary of state issued a statement saying, it is deplorable that there are unverified, unverifiable, and completely false news stories that harm persons or institutions. now, while all this was going on, pope benedict after his week-long lenten retreat was getting back to business. he met with the italian pres

vatican aspopebenedictxvimade his final sunday appearance and the church faced new allegations of wrong doing. nbc's ann thompson is at the vatican for us tonight. ann, good evening. >> good evening, lester. people packed st. peters square today to say good-bye to pope benedict. he told the crowd that by retiring he was not abandoning the church, but, rather, that god had called him to a life of more prayer and meditation. the crowd, in turn, in song and with signs and in many different languages said thank you to the 85-year-old pontiff. as that was happening, there were new charges. there were charges being brought against a scottish cardinal, one of the men that will vote for the new pope, three priests and one young priest accused him of inappropriate behavior. lester. >> ann thompson in rome tonight. thank you. >>> that's "nbc nightly news" for this sunday. i'll see you short loyel